Lesson #4: Use Innovation To Break Through Your Limitations

“We are used to things improving every year; we are used to having a better cell phone next year than this year; a better lap top,” says Musk. “We are even used to some basic things, like we expect more from your car in next year’s model than last year’s model. But this is not the case in space; reliability and cost - those are the fundamental parameters of transportation - have not improved.”

Space exploration is nothing new. Indeed, for decades, entrepreneurs and scientists alike have been in a race to explore and populate undiscovered areas of outer space. So why is Musk’s company, SpaceX, showing so much promise? Why do many experts believe that if anyone can have a serious impact, Musk can? The answer to those questions is the same reason behind the success of Musk’s first two companies, Zip2 and PayPal. Musk used innovation to break through his – and the rest of the world’s – limitations.

“Starting and growing a business is as much about the innovation, drive and determination of the people who do it as it is about the product they sell,” says Musk. That is why Musk sees little difference between the three different companies he founded; all were driven by Musk’s determination and drive to succeed and change the world, and all were based on being innovative. All three of Musk’s businesses did things that either no one else was doing yet, or doing them in a way that no body else had thought of yet. And that is why he was able to succeed where others fell by the wayside.

Before beginning to build his own rockets, Musk took a look at all of the ones that his predecessors and competitors had built before him. He looked at the technology and he looked at the design. He took what he thought was not working and he set out to fix it. As a result of the changes Musk made, he has been able to build rockets that are lower cost and higher performance.

The list of innovations and improvements Musk and his team made to their SpaceX rockets is long. They changed the engine, giving it the lowest possible cost choice of architecture, covering it with fireproof blankets, and improving its pump and injector. “So even if a fire develops, it can't really attack the particularly vulnerable locations like the pneumatic system or the avionics or the engine bay,” says Musk. “We want to be in the situation that even if a fire develops, the rocket just keeps going.”

They changed the rocket’s structure, giving it an inexpensive aluminum tank, and enabling it to stand un-pressurized on a launch pad in even extreme winds. They updated its avionics with the latest technology. They made a rocket that would be completely assembled in the SpaceX factory so that no army of workers would later be required at the launch site.

For Musk, however, one of the greatest innovations at SpaceX is its “ability to make almost any part of the rocket in house.” This, he says, gives it “a great deal of bargaining power with suppliers. We are never locked in to anyone.”

And so, just like he did with his two Internet companies, Musk is making sure that he has total control over his operations and can improve things where he sees fit. Those innovations are giving SpaceX its lifeline, and Musk a third chance at success.



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